


Missions

by LowkeyinLove32



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24451510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LowkeyinLove32/pseuds/LowkeyinLove32
Summary: Zuko is tired of his sister constantly making trouble, so he sends her to go on a mission he knows she will hate
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 61





	1. Chapter 1

“Azula!” Lord Zuko calls after his mischievous sister. It’s the fifth time the princess has caused trouble in a span of three days. 

“Yes, Zuzu?” She turns, smirking at her fuming brother. She can’t help, but be proud of herself for the stress she is inflicting on him. She doesn’t worry about the consequences because what is he going to do? Send her to prison and therapy again? There is nothing he could do that will straighten her. 

“What is your problem?” He asks through gritted teeth. “You just destroyed some poor man’s cabbages! For what?”

“For entertainment.” She says, nonchalantly, picking out some debris from under her nails. 

Zuko pinches the bridge of his nose. He has done everything he could to change his sister for the better, but nothing is working out. He keeps giving her chances, which she only takes for granted. Even his friends, the team Avatar, has been pressuring him to do something about her. 

“I will think about what your punishment will be.” He says, “but for now, go to your room.”

The princess bursts into laughter. “Okay, your highness.” She bows to him, knowing how much he hates it. 

“What am I going to do with you?” He whispers to himself. 

——

“You guys don’t understand,” Zuko argues with his friends. “I can’t send her back to prison, it will only bring back her hallucinations.”

The group has been coming up with ways to deal with the insufferable princess for an hour now. Everyone has been suggesting either taking her back to prison or therapy. 

“Well, you can’t just let her run loose.” Aang says, which everyone agrees to. 

“But I don’t want her to feel like I’m restricting her freedom.” Zuko buries his head in his hands. This is becoming more and more complicated for him. He loves his sister, so he doesn’t have the heart to put her through something that will hurt her. However, he also knows that she must be contained. 

“Zuko, we get it,” Katara puts a hand on his back. “This is difficult for you. You weren’t able to do anything to stop her from going full on-“ she stops to find the right word to describe the girl. 

“Psycho?” Zuko finishes for her. 

“Well, yes.” She says, “I also have something that might be a fit punishment for her. You see, I have recruited some healers and friends to come with me to the lower ring of Ba Sing Se for a mission.”

Zuko nods for her to continue on. 

“We will be staying there for a week, helping and stuff. I think if you make her come with us and help out, she will hate it enough that maybe she will finally stop all her nonsense.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Sokka waves his hands. He can’t believe what he is hearing. A selfish woman, helping out the sick and the poor? Impossible. “Are you crazy? What makes you think she will help you? And why would you trust her with this? And how would that stop her from doing future mischiefs?” 

“Sokka, stop being an over dramatic.” She waves off her brother’s concerns. “If you send her to do this mission with us, she will surely hate it. In the future you could threaten to send her to another one if she gets into trouble again.”

Zuko thinks about it. It’s a very good idea, but there is no way Azula will help them. She will try her best to make herself a burden for sure. However, he also trusts Katara to put her in her place and not baby her at all. 

“I like that.”

——

“Zuko!” Azula barges into her brother’s chamber only to find him sitting on the floor. The princess has heard about his plan of sending her to Ba Sing Se and she doesn’t like it one bit. There is no way she is going to be stuck with those peasants for a week. 

“Hush, Azula.” He says, breathing in and out slowly. “I’m meditating.”

Azula rolls her eyes at her brother’s hobbies. “Stop trying to get in touch with your spiritual side for a moment and listen to me.”

“So now, you want me to listen to you?” He laughs, remembering all the times she has waved him off and ignored him. 

“Why are you sending me to Ba Sing Se?” She demands. 

“So you learn your lesson.” 

“What lesson?” She scoffs. “I will never stop doing what I’m doing.”

“Then I’ll just send you to more of their missions.” He shrugs. 

“You’re insufferable.” She says, frustratingly. 

“No, you.” He says, getting back to his meditation. 

He is gonna have to send Katara some care packages after this trip. Boy, is she gonna need it.


	2. Chapter 2

Zuko wipes fake tears from his eyes. It’s the day Azula is set to depart to Ba Sing Se. He’s been waiting for this day ever since the first time Katara mentioned it. He has realized that it will not really do anything to make his sister’s behavior better, but at least she will suffer a little and he will have something to threaten her with if she ever plans on getting in trouble in the future. 

“Farewell, my dear sister.” He says, trying to embarrass her in front of people. “Take care of yourself.”

“Oh, stop. You sound pathetic.” She rolls her eyes at his tactics. She hates him for making her do this. She thought that there was nothing he could do that will make her want to pull her hair out anymore, but then this happened. She would rather go to therapy, at least she gets to talk about herself. 

Once Azula has entered the airship and left, Zuko releases the breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

——

Azula is sitting in the corner watching people prepare for their mission. She thinks it’s pathetic how much they are stressing themselves out for something so stupid. Why did they even want to help them? They will gain nothing, in fact, they are only wasting their breath. 

“Hey, Azula.” Katara approaches her with a smile. She just raises her eyebrow at her. “Usually, we try to do our fair share of work and-“

“Oh, don’t worry about me, I’m all   
good.” She pats her bag next to her. 

“Okay, but you should still try to help.” Katara says, starting to lose patience. 

“No, thank you.”

Katara was about to yell at the girl when she felt a hand on her shoulder. It’s Suki. She gives Katara a small smile. 

“It’s okay, come on.” She mouths, knowing that it’s a waste of time trying to persuade the princess to do work. 

Once the two girls are out of sight, Azula smirks. At least there will be one thing that will make this trip bearable: messing with the waterbender. 

“Listen up, everyone.” Katara says, holding a piece of paper. “In a day, we will be arriving at our destination. There, we will not be living like a royalty.”

When she said the last part, she made sure to make eye contact with the spoiled, mischievous princess. 

“We will be living like them. I have assigned each one of you to a family. You will be helping them and you will be sheltering at their homes. You will treat them with respect. Failing to do so will result in consequences. Dismissed.”

Katara walks over to everyone telling them which family they will be going to. 

“Usually, we only assign one person to each family, but in your case, I assigned you with Suki.”

“The katana fighter?”

“The Kyoshi warrior.” She corrects. “I have given her all the information, she will come find you.”

“What if I wanted to be assigned with you?” She fakes pout.

“Hush it.” She walks away, completely ignoring the princess. 

——

Azula’s nap was interrupted by someone tapping her. She was about to go crazy on the person, but she stopped herself just in time. It’s just the Kyoshi warrior. 

“We will be landing tomorrow.”

“I know, you’ve all said it a thousand of times now.” Azula says, irritated that someone dares to wake her up. 

Suki raises her eyebrow. “This girl really is annoying, huh?” She thinks to herself. 

“Well,” she clears her throat. “I’m here to tell you that we will be meeting at that corner tomorrow, so we don’t spend an hour trying to find each other.”

The princess rolls her eyes once again.

“We have been assigned to the Lee family,” Suki then proceeds to talk about the family they have been assigned to. At first she was listening, but then she caught sight of someone familiar. 

“Are you done?” She asks, but she doesn’t even wait for the answer. She stands up to go search for the girl she thinks she saw. 

“This... girl.” Suki can’t believe the disrespect. 

Azula walks around trying to find the girl. It’s gotta be her. 

She stops for a second, contemplating whether or not her hallucinations are back. “No, it can’t be that. The Kyoshi leader is here, so she must be too.” She tells herself. 

She continues to search for five more minutes before giving up. She knows it’s stupid. What is she doing looking for her anyway? She doesn’t care. Not one bit. 

She keeps telling herself over and over again that she doesn’t care, but deep down she feels disappointed that she doesn’t find her. 

“I’m probably just hungry.” 

After eating, the princess tries to distract herself by playing with a small fire. 

“I don’t care.” She says. “I don’t care.” After failing to stop thinking about who she thinks she saw, she decides to stop playing with fire and force herself to sleep. “I don’t care.”

——

“Good morning, everyone.” Someone says enthusiastically over the intercom. “We have landed at the great city of Ba Sing Se.”

Azula is once again annoyed that someone has once again interrupted her sleep. It’s very early in the morning and she doesn’t feel like getting up yet. The noise around her is not helping either. 

“Why are they so excited?” She is once again very confused. Here they are at the city of Ba Sing Se where they will be living in poverty and work for free for a week, and yet they are jumping for joy. They are some very weird people. 

She decides to stand up, get her bag, and walk over to where Suki told her to wait. While waiting, she studies the people. She can’t help but be a little surprised that many people actually signed up for this mission. 

“Oh, so you at least listened to one thing I said.” Suki teases her. 

The warrior hands her a big bag. Azula looks at her like she was going to grill her. 

“Why did you hand me this?”

“So you could carry it?” Suki beckons for her to follow. 

“How come you’re not carrying anything?” She protests the inequality. 

“We are going to be walking for 2 miles and my muscles are sore from training, so congrats.” 

“That doesn’t even make any sense.” She protests more. She is annoyed by the girl’s tactics. “What if I drop it?”

“Then I will tell Zuko.” She smirks. “And he’ll be mad and send you to another one of our missions.”

If her brother didn’t threaten to send her to another mission if she causes trouble, she would have fought these people by now. She hates these people, so she tells herself to calm down. She is aware of the effect the warrior wants to impose on her. For that reason, she has decided to stop talking. 

The walk to their destination was fun... if you asked Suki, but if you asked Azula, she would tell you to get lost. 

“Couldn’t we have caught a train?” Azula asks, panting a little. 

“Oh, yes, but it wouldn’t have been fun, would it, princess?” Suki continues to get on every one of Azula’s nerves. She is having way too much fun seeing her reactions, especially now that she knows the girl wouldn’t be able to do anything. 

“I hate you.” 

Suki gives her a wide smile.

“Here.” She hands her a bag with a cookie inside. 

“What the hell is this?” She asks, very confused. 

“A cookie.” 

“Okay, captain obvious, but why?”

“A friend wanted me to give it to you.”

“You have friends?” Azula jokes, getting a straight face from the other girl. 

“Ha ha.” 

If Azula wasn’t hungry, she would have just thrown the cookie away, but given that she walked for miles carrying a heavy bag, she doesn’t really care. When she first takes a bite, it tastes like a regular cookie, but the more she chews it, the more it becomes familiar. She has eaten something like this before. 

“Of course.” She thinks to herself. “I know exactly who made this.” She tries to savor every bite. 

“Hey,” Suki waves a hand in front of her face. “Are you alright?”

“Of course.” She tells her, finally taking the last bite. 

“What a weirdo.” She insults her before knocking on their assigned family’s door. After a moment, they are greeted by a little boy. 

“Hello,” Suki kneels so she could be the same height as the boy. “Are your parents inside?”

The boy shakes his head, but he doesn’t say a word. Suki exchanges a look with Azula who doesn’t seem to care at all. 

“Do you know where your parents are?” The boy shakes his head once again. 

“Oh, just stop asking him questions and let’s get inside.” Azula says, getting impatient. The warrior puts a finger up, telling the princess to stay put. This annoys Azula. She hates when people order her around and this girl has done it way too much today. 

“How old are you?” She asks the boy. He looks at his fingers and starts counting. He holds up seven fingers. 

“You’re seven, and you can’t talk?” She asks insensitively. Suki shoots her a glare to which she just shrugs. She knows the girl won’t do anything. If she does, fighting back would be considered self defense. 

The boy, on the other hand just looks down at his feet, embarrassed. 

“Don’t listen to her, okay.” She hugs him. “We are here for a mission and we have been assigned to your family. Can we come in?”

The boy steps out of the way to let them come in. The house was not big. It consists of only one room, a small living room, and a small kitchen. 

Azula knows that it will be a long week for her, but she lived in a prison cell for a while so she knows she’ll manage. 

Suki starts unpacking everything that’s in the bag. When the princess sits down and makes herself comfortable, she gives her a glare. 

“Aren’t you going to help?” 

“What, I carried that for 2 miles! The least you could do is unpack it.” She crosses her arms. It’s her turn to watch the girl work. 

“You’re annoying!” She says, unpacking their supplies carefully. While she unpacks, the boy does nothing but stare. After a moment, he gets tired of watching and approaches Azula. The princess raises her eyebrow at him, but he just sits next to her somehow enjoying her company. 

“What a weirdo.” She thinks to herself. 

It takes Suki almost half an hour to unpack everything without breaking or ruining them. Azula claps to annoy her even more. 

“Boy, was that slow.”

“If you just helped me, it would’ve taken half the time.”

They were about to get into an argument when a bird entered the house. 

“Hawky! Look at you!” Suki opens her arms for the bird. “Who’s a good boy?”

Azula can’t believe what she is seeing. She thought she had seen a lot of weird things, but this one tops it all. It gets even weirder when Suki starts to scratch the bird’s neck and it seems to enjoy it. 

“What message do you have for me.” She even talks to him in a weird voice. Azula wants to go home. Suki reads the letters the bird brought them and her eyes go wide. 

“What does it say?” 

“Katara wants me to help her out at the facility, she said that there are way too many sick people.”

“So, what now, I’ll be alone here?” She asks while looking at the sleeping child next to her. 

“She said she’ll send a replacement.” She stands up and gathers her things. 

“Why are you leaving now?” Azula doesn’t want to be alone with a child. That never ends well because children tend to hate her. 

“Stop whining, I’m sure the replacement will be here soon.” With that, she leaves.


	3. Chapter 3

It’s been over an hour and Azula is still alone with a sleeping child. The warrior said that the replacement will be over here soon, but an hour is a very long time. 

She decides to stand up and get out of the house to get some fresh air. She hates it here. Everything around her screams poverty and she thinks she is just not fit for that. 

The princess has not been to this part of Ba Sing Se before. As a matter of fact, she’s only been to the castle along with her former friends. Her most trusted friends who eventually betrayed and left her, but of course it doesn’t really bother her. She doesn’t know why she’s still thinking about it. She doesn’t care. 

She kicks around a rock for a while before she finally spots a Kyoshi warrior approaching. She is filled with relief. 

“Finally, I was told you’d be here shortly.” She says with an attitude. 

The Kyoshi warrior just looks at her for about a minute. As the princess gets closer to get a clearer look at the girl, she realizes who it is. 

‘Agni.’ It’s insane how she was just thinking of her and now she’s here. It makes her think of what her uncle told her about destiny or something. She scolds herself in her head. She shouldn’t listen to him, he always talks about nonsense. 

“T-there was an incident at the main facility.” She stammers. “I-I’m sorry.”

Azula can kind of tell that the girl still feels uneasy around her, which makes her smirk on the inside. She’s glad that she still has this effect on her. It is only fitting she does. 

“Well, go inside.” She orders and the girl does just that. When they enter, the boy is still sleeping. 

“You left him in here alone?” Ty Lee questions her. 

“I literally didn’t go far from here.” Azula says, unbothered. “Besides, a lot of people would agree that he’s safer alone by himself than to be alone with a deranged princess, am I right?”

She gives Azula a confused look with a little hint of disappointment, but doesn’t say anything. She sets her bag down and starts removing her make up. 

Azula tried her best to look at anything but the acrobat. She focuses her attention on the kid whose presence she hasn’t really acknowledge much. 

‘Why is he sleeping so much?’ She thinks to herself. When she was his age, she did nothing but train, train, and train. Her goal was to be a protege. Of course she achieved her goal, but she wishes that she had just slept instead. Maybe that’s why she is the way she is, she never got the adequate amount of sleep for her age. 

The thought of the past makes her laugh. She hates it. She hates how much better life was when she was younger. When she didn’t know how terrible the world was just yet. She hates thinking because it always results in her thinking about the past, about the things she can’t change. 

She shakes her head because if she doesn’t, she will for sure have a migraine. She steals a glance at Ty lee who has finished removing her make up and has also very quickly changed into some comfortable clothes. It’s been a while since she has really seen her. The last time she did was about a year ago when she was chi blocking her every second of her life. 

‘Stop thinking.’ She shakes her head once again. 

The princess can’t help but feel the awkward atmosphere between her and her former friend start to drive her a little insane, but lucky for her, the boy starts stirring and finally wakes up. The acrobat’s attention turns to him. 

“Hello,” she says as if talking to her pet cat while the boy rubs his eyes. She walks over to him and asks him a lot of questions. What a weirdo. 

Azula just crosses her arms. She doesn’t know why people put on a nice facade around kids. They’re just kids. Trying to protect them from the harsh truth of life will do nothing but harm them. This is probably why people never let her near their kid. They know that she never bothers to put a filter on what she says. 

She looks at them and notices that the boy is not listening to a word the acrobat is saying. Instead, he is looking directly at her as if he’s trying to solve her like a puzzle. This makes her a little uncomfortable. She hates how children always do that to her. They always seem to be staring right into her soul. The worst thing is, she can’t challenge them to an Agni Kai. 

“Who are you?” Someone enters the house and chucks rocks at the two mission volunteers. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Azula asks, furiously. She refrains herself from throwing fireballs at him, which was very challenging considering the fact that she used to turn people into dust a second after disrespecting her. However, now Zuko has her by the neck. One wrong move can jeopardize her freedom. Injuring this earth bender will surely make Zuko way too furious. 

“We are the volunteers. Weren’t you told we were coming?” Ty Lee asks, calmly. 

“Volunteers? I wasn’t told anything about volunteers trespassing into my house.” He narrows his eyes at them. 

“But this kid let us in easily.” Azula says, pointing at the now horrified child. 

He looks at the child like how Azula’s father used to look at her when she would make silly mistakes. “Whatever.” He leaves. 

“Who the hell was that?” Azula huffs. 

“That was my brother.” The child says in a low voice they almost missed it. 

“You can talk!” Ty Lee says, enthusiastically. 

“Wow, yay.” Azula sarcastically mumbles under her breath. 

The child blushes and nods. 

“What was up with your brother?” Azula asks. She doesn’t receive a response. 

“It’s okay,” The acrobat rubs his back. “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

“No, he really has to talk and explain.” She pressures the child who in turn lowers his head in embarrassment and fear. 

“No, he doesn’t.” Ty Lee firmly says while glaring at her. 

“Whatever.” She drops the subject. The acrobat has always been so complicated. One second she was scared of her, the next she’s looking at her like she wants to kill her. And for what? For asking a child who can talk to talk and explain some confusing shit? This is some kind of bs she can’t wait to get away from. Only 6 more days and 18 hours to go before this ends and she could get back to the palace. She needs to be patient. She quietly does the breathing exercises she was taught.


End file.
